Animal researchers are finding that animals normally raised by a mother and a father get skewed neural development when they are reared without the father.

Meanwhile, research continues to show that girls raised without their biological father tend to mature quicker and are more likely to be promiscuous. And the pathologies of illegitimacy* and single parenthood abound.

Huh. Who would have thought that some old, out-of-touch white guys who probably don’t even read Sunstone would have known what they were talking about?

OK, OK. We’ll compromise. I’ll admit the Prophets might be on to something, but only to the extent that it doesn’t require mne to change my behavior or to take positions that might be unpopular with my cool friends.

*Illegitimacy is a perfectly fine word, but apparently its unpopular with those who dislike that their might be a stigma attached to bad behavior. Those people may replace illegitimacy with any euphemism they like, out-of-wedlock, natural children, marriage-capable, whatever.

As I mentioned elsewhere, one of the arguments used in favor of no-fault divorce is that children would do better in an environment free of conflict. Leaving aside the question of whether any divorce ever freed the children’s environment of conflict, the studies now show that children raised in a highly imperfect marriage are still better off than children raised by divorced parents.

The higher likelihood of problems for children raised in single parent households are pretty well established. There have been multiple studies over the past few decades. There are some quibbles over details, but the basic finding — that children raised by a single mother are at a disadvantage compared to children raised by a husband and wife — has been well established statistically.

The major divide is over the question of what that finding says about same sex marriage.

SSM opponents — including the church, in multiple statements — have argued that these studies show that children must be raised by a mother and father, or else they will be disadvantaged. Therefore, children raised in same sex households will be disadvantaged.

On the other hand, SSM proponents have argued that these studies only show that single-parent childraising is a disadvantage and that dual-parent childraising is not, and therefore children raised by two same-sex partners should be fine because unlike the study subjects, they are raised by dual parents, not single moms.

Both sides overstate the evidence. The single-parent studies show that single parents are at a disadvantage. They don’t say why. It could be because both genders are necessary (the church position) or simply because two parents of any gender are better than one (SSM advocates position).